The school known for “free love” in the 1960s is now offering free college lectures—on YouTube.

UC Berkeley is the first university to launch its own “channel” on the dominant video-sharing site. More than 300 hours of course lectures (most related to science and technology) are available at no cost online—including “Search, Google and Life” by Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

The site and its navigation are crude. (Berkeley should check out this inspiring TED conference video site for some pointers.) But the idea is fascinating.

Perhaps like Radiohead—which is offering downloads of its latest album at “it’s-up-to-you” pricing—UC Berkeley is betting that the more you give away, the more you get back over time. In today’s digital world, that’s a valuable lesson that a lot of organizations should learn.